Quizzing

Saturday March 14, 2010 marked my last district quiz round ever (as a quizzer anyway). To a lot of people Bible quizzing is just too weird. They wonder why people spend hours studying and days quizzing over books in the Bible. I would say competition is definitely a motivation, but once you really dig into the Bible, you find so much more than what you need to answer questions.
I grew up in a family that was involved in Bible quizzing with the Church of the Nazarene. From top to bottom all six kids in my family have quizzed at least one year. When the fall of 2004 came, I was ready to jump in and quiz for my local church team, Ferguson. At first it was pretty difficult. I had a hard time pre-jumping as well as studying correctly. Ben, our coach, was very dedicated to the quizzing program and he gave and still gives us a lot of his time. He has been my coach for all six years I quizzed. He as well as the competition helped me improve. Throughout my years of quizzing I have managed to make the top ten in the district multiple times despite my small reputation for getting errors. Success, however, was not what made quizzing so great to me. Yes, my team does really well and winning is definitely fun, but the things I learned and the people I got to know through quizzing have been a big part of carrying me through high school.
In quizzing, I always see the same people every month. Along with other district and regional events I eventually got to know people. The people I got to know the most were my teammates. My freshman year we had two new quizzers join our team, Christina and Rebekah. They had moved all the way from New York. Getting to know them was fun. It is amazing to me how people in our own country have different ways of saying things and adressing different situations. They are good friends and also are really good quizzers. Them getting better motivated me to get better. It was also cool to see how their whole family supported each other in different things. Other people you get to know are the adults that take time out of their busy lives to be officials at our quizzes. J.D., Randy, Janine, and Patrick were some of the officials that volunteered from our church. Patrick even became the District Quiz Director which was really cool. I met different coaches and officials everywhere we quizzed and it was amazing to see them work with the quizzers. I know they are giving time to support a ministry that they know means much more than success.
In everything I do, I want God to be at the center. And it is very difficult to acheive that goal. Bible quizzing to me was a motivation to dig into what God is saying through His Word. From Paul's sometimes confusing letters to Matthew's Old Testament-filled gospel, I learned how to dig into God's Word. One thing I learned is that being a representative of Christ is not easy. I should always be digging deeper and searching for God's will in my life. For a long time I was putting walls around me. I was not a big fan of opening up to people. Quizzing, among other things, helped me break down my walls and get to know people, strengthen my relationship with Christ, and be appreciative of what God has given me.

To those who are thinking about quizzing:

1. Just study (really study) and quiz one year and if you don't like it, fine. Just remember
that the more you study the more fun you have.
2. Don't let the jump seats intimidate you. It won't take long for you to be flying off the seat.
3. As far as Nazarene Bible Quizzing goes, you do not have to attend a Church of the
Nazarene to participate.
4. Don't let other people deter you from not doing it.


Thank you to all of those who have volunteered your time this year. Thanks to all my fellow quizzers for your support, especially my Ferguson team and coach. We still have MAX and Q2010 left!

Future

So I am in the middle of an intense research of college majors. Most of you know that I am a map guy. Every since I was little I have always had this interest in finding places and street arrangements. Most people think that puts me in the weirdo category. If you have known me long enough, I have been in that category a long time. Naturally, I want my college major to be in that category.
Throughout my high school life I have been bombarded with confusion on where my life should be going. Where does God want me to be? The future is always the hardest part. The unknown can be so exciting yet for people like me who don't know what exactly to do in the future it can be a little bit scary.
The truth is that in college I am looking for an affordable and excellent school that is not too close or too far away from home. That has a campus close to home and my brothers and sister's schools. It also, obviously, has to be able to academically serve my major. Right now I am looking at a major in cartography which according to many college search sites is actually a major. Cartography in the most general definition is the making and interpreting of maps (primarily making). It just seems like something I would enjoy.
My main point is what I realized today while at a prayer meeting. Due to snow, this prayer meeting was not very large. It just had me, my sister, two really cool people who happen to look like each other, and another cool person. This prayer meeting happens every week and is led by two of my friends (the really cool people I mentioned earlier). I am not sure what triggered it in my head--maybe the quick mention of college in the conversation. I am not afraid anymore. I am not going to hesitate to move forward out of fear. My future in a way is already decided. Wherever God leads me, whether to Flo Valley or to a university, I will praise His name. Whether in cartography or another major, I will praise his name. Just being around friends over the weekend and today has really made me thankful for all my friends and family and all the God has done in my life. My past and present situations were and are in God's hands. My future is in God's hands as well. I will not sit back lazily and mope about my situation. God has something waiting for me.

Purpose

Purpose. That word rings in so many people's heads all over the world. What am I doing here? Though many have attempted to answer this question there still has been only one with a solid backing to it. A pastor named Rick Warren (most have heard of him) wrote a book on this very topic. His book, The Purpose Driven Life, took the best-seller's list by storm. Just seeing the reaction to the book reveals what many people have on their mind. Why am I here?
For me the answer is so simple yet so hard to imagine or fathom. God.
I did not come to this understanding so easily. Probably the thing that struck me most was a sign. By now I am sure there are quite a few churches that have these signs. I was at Gateway Central Church of the Nazarene and on my way out of the property when I saw a sign that said, "You are now entering the mission field." It was there then that I began to truly grasp my purpose. I am surrounded by my purpose at this very moment. I am here because of God and for God, therefore my purpose is my mission field. My purpose is to live for God in the pitch black world that surrounds me, to live for Him in every moment good and bad, and to serve Him by sharing His message to those around me.
Currently, what surrounds me the most is the city (more like really large town) of St. Louis, Missouri. There are a lot of jokes about St. Louis relating to crime rate, food, sports, and even its water. Having one year where the city had the highest rated tap water and highest crime rate people would say that the water was literally "to die for." I get tired of the crime rate stuff eventually. St. Louis is really a great town but most people do not look past its reputation to see it. I have had many opportunities to see the need in my community, school, and church. This, currently is my mission field.
I will be honest with you, I do not have a clue what God has planned for me in the future. I may be in St. Louis the rest of my life or in Fort Kent, Maine. Who knows? I do not even know where I am going to college. I do know this: I am not just a teenager meant to sit in my comfort zone because I am not yet "at the age" to break out and be the person God wants me to be. God did not design me to wait eighteen years to serve Him. He set me here to be his warrior and servant. I love St. Louis with all of my heart. I love my friends with all of my heart. I love my family with all of my heart. I love God with all of my heart and I will serve Him wherever He sends me and I will show His love to everybody.
I challenge you to serve Him with absolutely everything. It is the most difficult task. There is so much riding against those who serve God. Persecution, Pain, Discouragement. Yet there is so much support. "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Questions

You know it is rather interesting how much people think they know something about someone or something but could end up being completely wrong. I have been on the wrong side many times and have definitely been surprised on many occasions. People have thought some things about me that are wrong. The most recent was someone asking why I don't like hugging people. Where they got that I have no idea. My family would laugh if someone told them that. The truth is I have absolutely no problem with hugging people as long as they are a good friend or family member. I am aware that hugging can be awkward so I definitely don't push the matter. One would, however, judge correctly by saying I am an introvert and that I don't like country music. Most likely taking a scripture out of context, "The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought know" (1 Cor 8:2). Naturally how I act could easily lead a person to believe something about me that is completely wrong. So I was wondering if how I act hurts how I represent Christ. Do people see how I act and make assumptions about what Christians are like? I certainly don't want to misrepresent Him. But I do know that if I live for Christ and give Him control of my life people will see Him through me. His sacrifice has given me life and I do not want to waste it.

(this thought was not apart of my systematic thought process, but i mean every word)

Builder

I am a builder. A good one. My specialty is walls. Big walls with the most support possible. They have to be tall, but they are never tall enough. They have to be thick. But they are never thick enough. I am building to hide from something. It is scary. If it is revealed it will break down everything. Everything I built to support and protect myself will come down at its feet. It reveals more than I ever want to know. In reality, I actually do know it...but i don't want to. Thus the reason for the walls. They hide me from it, for a while. But eventually those will fall so I have to build new ones. I am good at this because of my experience, but it is coming faster and with more strength. It is an overpowering force that takes the sheer limits of my skill and strength to hold back. My walls require more effort each time to stop it.
It has been almost 18 years. It won. It broke through and shredded every ounce of my flimsy foundation. It was the truth.
I am a sinner. A good one. My specialty is hiding the fact that I am a wretched sinner. Why? It tears down everything and makes me feel useless and hopeless on this earth. It condemns me to a pit of unimaginable pain and suffering. But something else came through that wall that I did not expect.....
Hope. God, the guy I turned my back against, sent His Son to earth, a place reeking of sin. His Son lived a perfect life. Not to show off, but to do this: Die for me. God put Him where I should have been and slammed all the weight of my sin on His shoulders so that I would not be condemned to the such pain. His sacrifice conquered my sin and gave me a way, gave me hope that I might be with God one day. Then, He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.
I have accepted this fact. His Spirit lives in me. I rejoice in Him with all of my heart. Though my life is rough at times, He NEVER fails. He is moving in me every day. His love surpasses any temptation thrown at me. Nothing else, Nobody else, can take away or overtake his love for me. I live for Him. My life is His.

The world is going against me
Evil is working its plan
But this is my prayer:
That Christ will shine through me
And into this darkened world.

He died for you too. He does not care what you did. He loves you with all of His heart. Stop building walls and help build His kingdom.

Until Heaven Takes Us Home

Death is easily the largest fear of anyone and perhaps anything on earth. Our instinct tells us to survive. Our mind tells us we don't want to die. I just watched a video clip by Frances Chan, a pastor and author of Crazy Love, who talked about the difference between a Christian's funeral and a non-Christian's funeral. He talked about how there was joy in a Christian's funeral and not so much in a non-Christian's funeral. The day before I saw this video I was at a wedding in Brentwood, Tennessee. My cousin Karen her husband Dan had an interesting end to their vows. The end was not "Until death do us part." It was "Until heaven takes us home." To attempt to make clear what I am trying to say I am going to start at the beginning. Why do we fear death? In my opinion it is because it is the only thing that can completely take us away from our little planet. (With the exception of Enoch and Elijah who were taken up by God without dying.) Death originated from sin. God told Adam and Eve they would surely die if they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And, a long time later, they died. Even Jesus feared death. He asked the Father if there was any other way to save the sins of the world and was stressed and worried to the point of sweating blood. We know when Jesus is sweating blood over the thought of death that death is most definitely the scariest thing in the world.
Should it be? Shouldn't we be looking to where death is taking us instead of where it is taking us from? I am not saying we should live to die. I don't want to go jump off a cliff and die because I want to go to heaven. I am saying that if we are saved by the grace of God (For those of you who don't like churchy words: we were really messed up but God gave us forgiveness we didn't deserve) we should not wallow in fear of death. We should live to give God all we have and leave our life in God's hands.
It is easy to forget about the love of God that set us free from perhaps the scariest death of all. To me, seperation from earth is very scary, but seperation from God is absolutely terrifying. I find that God's love is best described this way: Say you lived in Russia in the early 20th century. Joseph Stalin, one of the most wicked men of all time, has killed your entire family. He also killed your friends and blew away anything you ever knew. He took away any reason for you to live. Then, one day, you get to meet this guy. You walk up to him (now keep in mind that you are supposed to hate this guy) and tell him, "I forgive you and I will love you no matter what you do." Why would you do that? In reality, neither you or me would ever think about doing that. Most would probably want to kill him. But that is what God does. We take all the love He has shown us and we stomp on it. We disregard His love. We leave Him absolutely no reason to love us at all. But what did He do? He says to us (now keep in mind that He is supposed to hate us for what we did to Him) , "I forgive you and I will love you no matter what you do."
By now your mind is probably not following anything I am saying at all. Bud Taylor was probably one of my favorite people on earth. He was kind, he was a servant, and was a follower of God. He had hard times in his life. I do not know when he accepted Christ but I do know he did and lived for Him the rest of his life. He was a coal miner--tough to the core. He served in the military. He served in his church. When he moved from the hills of West Virginia to the flat town of Portage, Indiana, he served the Lord. When his wife died. He pressed on and continued to serve. He married again and continued serving the Lord in Mustang and Stillwater, Oklahoma. Anyone who knew him would tell you of his service and hard work. Bud Taylor was my grandpa. He survived bypass surgeries and colon cancer, but esophogal cancer took his life in December of 2004. His funeral was one of the most joyful funerals I have ever been to. Yes, there were many tears, but the joy of knowing that God's love had given him life in heaven overtook those tears. Because of God's love, the sin that has existed since Adam and Eve was not able to conquer him. Heaven took my grandpa home.
Will we still fear death? Definitely. But we will have peace. The Bible tells us to "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." (Colossians 3:15 NIV) I am determined to give God all I got. His love is greater than death. Nothing in all of creation, including death, can seperate us from the love of God. I give Him all of my life. I strive here on earth with all of His energy, as we all should until heaven takes us home.

Okay

What a tough week. School, work, and more school can put a lot of pressure on my mind. By now, all of the schools have probably started; so those of you who go to school may know what I mean. Whenever I have a rough week or two, I tend to not get enough sleep and end up at school, work, or other things extremely tired. And, based on the looks I would get, I look tired. People will also ask stuff like, "Are you okay?" Now a lot of people will get offended by that question, but I make sure I don't. They are just making sure everything is all right. Sometimes with me everything is all right and sometimes it definitely is not. Though, unless it is my friends or family, I will probably say I am okay every time. Those phrases, "I'm okay," "I'm good," or "I'm fine" come out of our mouths almost automatically. Even sometimes when it seems like the world is crashing down around us we will find that answer coming out of our mouths or sounding off in our thoughts. Okay is defined in many dictionaries (I use definitions a lot if you haven't noticed) as "satisfactory or under control." So when can we truly answer "I'm okay (satisfactory and under control)."? We often are in the middle of all of this stress and all of these problems. A lot of times we forget why we are here and what God wants to do in us. We get lost trying to sort everything out on our own. I think the biggest thing that gets me is worries. A lot of times when I am worrying about school, church stuff, or my health I just lose myself trying to find my way out. But here is something that struck me recently. God wants me. He wants everything. He wants my entire life. He wants to take on my worries. Recently, a band named Leeland (I love this group!) came out with a new album called Love is on the Move. The album has a song called "Holy Spirit Have Your Way in Me." The chorus gave me something to really think about:

"As I lay down my life and pick up my cross, what a joy it is to give my life away to You. All that I need, All that I seek is You here with me. Holy Spirit have Your way in me."
"Holy Spirit Have Your Way in Me." Leeland-Love is on the Move 2009

My favorite part is "what a joy it is to give my life away to You. In everything you go through remember that God is with you. Everything you have, good and bad, give it to God. Dedicate your life for his glory. Let God work wonders in you and through you. If you joyfully give your life to God, you won't only be "okay," you will be alive for Him.

"Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you."
1 Peter 5:7